Love and War - Aemond/Aegon Targaryen

Chapter 6

It had been days.
Days with no word. Days of not knowing what had happened. Days of Arlenna avoiding people.
She spent most of her time stood at the window in her chambers, staring out for some sign that Aemond and Aegon were on their way home.
It reminded her of all those years in Oldtown, cooped up in her room at the Hightower praying for some sign of Vhagar in the sky above.
Visenya was sleeping when she saw the first flap of wings in the clouds.
Not golden wings. Not Sunfyre.
But Vhagar.
She didn't think about waiting to see if the King was arriving too. She didn't think of anything at all as she raced through the halls of the Keep and down flights of old stone steps.
Her heart was pounding, her head void of all thoughts save for one.
She had to see Aemond.
She could hear others behind her. Perhaps Alicent and Otto. Perhaps the Lords she'd spoken to some days before. Perhaps Cerelle.
It didn't matter.
All that mattered was what was in front of her.
Her red dress billowed behind her as she ran, dark curls slapping against her back.
He was going to be okay.
He had to be okay.
It was raining outside. The soft pitter patter on the rooftops sounded like the hail of a thousand arrows in Arlenna's mind.
She stumbled a little as she ran out the doors outside.
Alicent was already there.
She glanced over at Arlenna, signalling that she should stand beside her.
Right.
More protocol and etiquette.
Like the dutiful flower that she had modelled herself to become, Arlenna plastered on a delicate smile and stood beside her cousin.
Her heart was thrumming. Beat after excruciating beat.
She watched. Waited. But in the rain it was silent.
There was nothing.
Nothing but that empty, hollow, terrifying, silence.
It felt like an eternity standing and waiting but, judging by how dry she still remained, it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.
“Make way for the Prince!” A voice called and those words put her mind at ease a little more.
When Vhagar landed, she prayed to God that Aemond was sat atop her - safe and uninjured.
The great beast roared in the sky as she landed. She was almighty. A true sight to behold. But Arlenna's first thought was of her silver haired rider... Who she saw, as clear as day, sat atop the dragon.
She could've fallen to the floor in relief at that moment but she didn't.
Instead, she followed everyone else and bowed.
Aemond dismounted his dragon with ease, pulling something down with him as he did. She wasn't sure what - it was hard to tell from this distance.
But then he began walking, charging really, towards the steps and she knew that something was wrong.
The Prince made his way past all of the Lords and ladies, straight towards his mother and wife.
“Aemond?” Alicent asked, beginning the line of questioning that everyone wished to know the answer to. “What happened? Where is your brother?”
He paused, a flicker of sympathy on his angry face as he looked at his beloved mother, and then at Arlenna. But as his gaze met his wife's, the sympathy faded back into annoyance.
“Make way for the King!” He declared as two men carried someone inside.
Aegon.
Arlenna's heart dropped through her chest.
He was lying there, being carried to a maester. His pale hair was stained red with blood - his skin charred with dragon fire. His eyes were closed, breathing shallow.
Alicent covered her mouth as a sob escaped her but all Arlenna could do was stare.
“What happened?” She whispered.
Aemond straightened, his head high as he looked around.
The both knew what this meant.
He was next in line to the throne, after all.
“It was a long battle but we captured Rook's Rest. Rhaenyra sent Princess Rhaenys on dragonback. She killed many of our men. Aegon and I battled her and Meleys. The King and his dragon, Sunfyre, were injured during this. But Rhaenys and her dragon were killed and the battle was won. Rook's Rest is ours.”
The words washed over Arlenna.
The knowledge that they'd won, that they were safe for now, did little. It all felt worthless as she stared down at Aegon.
His skin was burnt and blistered, permanently scarred. If he survived this, Gods knew what sort of damage it would do to him.
“Did he... Did he fall? With Sunfyre?”
Aemond gave a grim nod. Alicent was struggling to keep her composure.
“Where is Sunfyre now?”
“He was injured in the fighting. I had to bring Aegon back without him.”
Arlenna nodded.
She felt numb. Like none of it was real. Like she was going to wake up and Aegon was going to be in his room drinking wine and entertaining courtiers.
“Take him inside.” Alicent commanded. “Fetch the Maesters. All of them.”
She followed her eldest son as he was carried back to his rooms.
Arlenna stared up at her husband.
Tears had begun to form in her eyes now and she tried to blink them away.
She couldn't form words. Couldn't think of what to say.
Instead, she reached up and kissed him.
Aemond pulled her into him, kissing her back like he needed her to breathe.
“Are you hurt?” She whispered as they parted. “Did anything happen to you?”
The faintest hints of joy slipped onto his face as he saw the anger in her eyes, the fire, at the prospect of him being harmed.
“I am fine.”
“He's more than fine.” Otto declared from somewhere nearby. Arlenna hadn't even noticed him. “I've had word that you are responsible for killing nearly a hundred of Staunton's men. And now you'll be regent.”
Arlenna didn't have to ask Aemond if it was true. As she looked at him, she saw in his one violet eye that it was. That he'd burned those men.
And she could see that it didn't perturb him.
A part of her was unsettled by this development. That the boy she'd grown up with had done such things.
But there was another part of her. A darker part, perhaps. The part that had clawed out a man's eyes and stabbed another in the throat.
And that part enjoyed it.
“As long as it brings you home to me,” She said, her voice sturdy and her mind made up, “I say burn them all.”
Aemond kissed her again.
She knew in that moment that she'd not needed to say a thing to him.
He already intended to do exactly that.